The Blackout
Having followed the news of the US/Canada blackout with interest, I'm pleased to have found this satellite photo of North America during it. That's one hefty chunk of darkness they had there.
Greengages
One of the guys at work brought round a bowl of greengages the other day. He'd been in his local greengrocer's, and the grocer had told him that the greengages were very good that day, so he'd bought some.
I can barely count the things that are wrong in the previous two sentences.
To start with, GREENGAGES? Who even knows what the hell a greengage is these days? (It's a type of plum, by the way.)
And then, he has a local greengrocer. Yeah, right, 'cos there's one of those on every street corner in London.
And this greengrocer actually recommends things that are especially good today.
I mean to say - it's like something out of Mapp and Lucia for heaven's sake!
Unreal
Well, I had major good intentions to get some rest last night so that I could make the most of this long weekend. Fat chance. I was still awake at 5am. Though at least it gave me a chance to have a good solid run at some of my new reading.
I'm having quite an active weekend according to current schedules actually. Quite unusual for me.
Small World
In one of those not very shocking twists of fate, I bumped into 'the puppy man' this evening. The reason for the lack of shock is that I was in the ame bar in which I met him last time on the same night of the week. We exchanged pleasantries and that was it. He'd shaved off his beard "so that I'd look younger".
It didn't work.
Brutality
So:
I upset someone this evening. Fairly majorly. Tears were involved. I didn't mean to upset them, though I was fairly sure it was unavoidable, as the fact was that I had to tell them something they didn't want to hear.
Not fun though.
And it got me thinking. Basically, this was a guy who on the basis of very little knowledge of me had declared himself to be falling for me, sending me messages galore about how he was always thinking of me, and stuff. And I simply didn't feel the same, and not to tell him would have been extremely unfair. To tell him that I was creeped out by his attentions was perhaps less subtle, but still equally honest.
But a few years ago, in a situation I've never discussed here before, I found myself on the receiving end of what I and others considered to be obsessive behaviour from a then-friend of mine, and she got to the point where I felt she actually needed help. That got very messy indeed, and ended up dragging other people into what was a thoroughly unpleasant situation.
So now I'm wondering if I give off some vibe that encourages odd behaviour.
The Uncertainty Principle
Alison and I have been playing tennis this evening, and some very selfish people were hogging the hard courts for a very long time. So we ended up on the grass courts for the first time. This was a very bad thing.
If you've ever played tennis on a badly-maintained municipal grass court, you may understand where I'm coming from. Which is more than we understood with regard to the ball. Between the worn patches, the bumps, the dips, and the plain old holes, there was literally no way of predicting which way the bounce was going to go.
We were flailing about like idiots. There was no point in trying to play an actual match, because skill would have played no part whatsoever. In the end we just knocked the ball backwards and forwards for an hour and got our very frustrating exercise running after it when it bounced in yet another bizarre direction.
Maddening.
New Books At Last
I've been moaning recently to anyone who'll listen that I need to read some new books. I've hit a real re-reading phase in the last few months, which isnn't a bad thing, as I'm one of nature's born re-readers, but I felt like I needed to browse and select some completely new material for a change.
So usefully, at the weekend, I wandered into Waterstones and found that they were having a 'Buy three for the price of two' deal on tableloads of paperbacks. And more usefully stiull, for once in a way, there were three books that I actually wanted to read included, instead of one I really wanted, another I sort of thought might be okay for the tube, and a third that I'd never read but I don't want to feel like I haven't got something for nothing.
So in the next few weeks I'll be indulging in:
Dorian by Will Self
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, and
Dead Air by Iain Banks
Started Dorian this morning, and I was pulled straight on in - I suspect it's going to be hard to put down.
Not Quite Matricide
But my word we came close.
Well it was an interesting (long) weekend. Mucho shopping was done, and a great deal of parental judgementalism was aired, which is one of the things that most pisses me off about my beloved mother. Honestly, she can pass judgement on anyone or anything with less reason and more venom than anyone I've ever known.
Exploring out into Kent on Sunday, we did some Show House viewing, for no better reason than that they were there. We found a couple of great developments near Chatham - I'll track down links when I get a minute.
We went to France for the day on Monday and that was fun - we hit the hypermarket and then wandered round Boulogne old town, I seem to recall patisserie being involved, and a very late return home to have a telephone call about, well, work, basically.
Emergency Contact
So my brother's on holiday this week, and just before he went, he called to tell me that his dog is in the kennels and he's given the kennel people my details for emergency contact. "They'll only call if she gets sick and needs to have an operation. They have to have consent for an operation, so if they call and tell you she needs one, just say yes. She's insured anyway."
But can I handle the responsibility?????
Parental Assault Imminent
Okay, well, in a couple of hours, I'll be picking up my mother as she arrives for her birthday weekend, and between taking her to stay at a friend's, and a day in France on Monday, I'm not sure how much I'll be posting over the next few days. So I'll just say that I hope you all have a great weekend, and I'll try to catch up at some point.